Commsec: US Close 15 Jan 18

Traders and financial professional work ahead of the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on 12 January 2018 in New York City. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP

THE Australian share market looks set to open sharply higher after fresh record highs on US and British markets.

At 0700 AEDT on Monday, the share price futures index was up 31 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 6,049.

In the US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both registered their eight record closing highs out of the first nine trading days of 2018, while the Dow boasted its sixth closing high of the year.

Britain’s top share index, the FTSE100, held onto record high levels on Friday, supported by a sharp rise in British engineering group GKN which said it had rejected an unsolicited offer from rival Melrose.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.89 per cent, to 25,803.19, the S&P 500 gained 0.67 per cent, to 2,786.24 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.68 per cent, to 7,261.06.

The FTSE 100 benchmark was up 0.20 per cent at 7,778.64 points at its close. Locally, in economic news on Monday, the CoreLogic capital city house prices survey for the week just ended is due out.

No major equities news is expected.

The Australian market on Friday closed flat, as strong gains by miners and some energy companies offset losses among financial, property and consumer stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 2.5 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 6,070.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index lifted 0.6 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 6,176.8 points.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar is back above 79 US cents after the green fell to a more-than-three-year low against the euro, which in turn pulled the US dollar index down one per cent.

The local currency was trading at 79.08 US cents at 0700 AEDT on Monday, from 78.79 on Friday.